[1] Unlike the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), Impress is fully compliant with the recommendations of the Leveson Inquiry[citation needed].
[6][7] In 2016, an external review by former civil servant, Sir Joseph Pilling, found IPSO "largely compliant" with the recommendations of the Leveson Inquiry.
[8] In 2013,[9] a new group was formed by free speech advocate Jonathan Heawood[10] called IMPRESS, intended to be a body fully compliant with the recommendations of Leveson.
[11][6][7] The government declined to implement Section 40, with the Culture Secretary Karen Bradley describing it as a threat to a “vibrant free local press”.
[18][19] In May 2018, it ordered the blog Evolve Politics to pay £900 in damages over an article wrongly claiming a Sky News broadcaster attended a Presidents Club dinner.
[20] In September 2017, an Impress internal review concluded that some of its senior board members - Heaward, Emma Jones (former editor of Smash Hits magazine and deputy editor of the Sun's showbiz column Bizarre[21]) and Máire Messenger Davies (emerita professor of media studies at Ulster University[21]) - breached its own standards by appearing to be biased against a number of newspapers; it recommended they step down from the Board.
[23] In November 2017, Jones and Messenger Davies were recused from the investigation of complaints about the Impress-regulated blog The Canary and its reporting on BBC politics editor Laura Kuenssberg after they shared tweets attacking her.
Streeting had complained to Impress after initially threatening on social media[32] to sue Skwawkbox for its reporting[33] of alleged abuse of black Labour MP Diane Abbott, with the site responding[34] that it stood by its article.
[35] The panel did not make a judgment on the factual accuracy of the Skwawkbox article, stating that "The Committee was not in a position to test the veracity of the evidence provided by the Publisher".
The PRP clarified that "This means that, amongst other things, Impress is independent of the print and online publishers it regulates, is appropriately funded, and has systems in place to protect the public.